The Boston Marathon Bombing: Tragedy, Response and Impact

Boston Marathon bombing took place on April 15th, 2013. It was a terrorist attack that involved two bombs. The homemade pressure-cooker bombs went off near the marathon finish line. The casualties from the attack were three spectators who died on the spot and more than 260 other people. 16 of them lost their limbs from the attack. A serious manhunt followed thereafter. Police forces and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were on their foot. They were in search of the initiators of the attack and finally, they captured the suspects. They were identified as Kyrgyz-American brothers. The Tsarnaev brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were also involved in other offensive activities, where they killed an MIT police officer, severely injured two police officers during a shoot out and kidnapped a man in his car. Tamerlan died a year later after being shot several times whilst his brother escaped death by a whisker when he ran over during the shoot-out. The investigators finally concluded that the two brothers carried out the attack, without any terrorist connection. Boston Marathon Bombing was a hazardous attack, so this essay focuses on materials about that event. 

Bombing

The event was the 117th annual marathon. It was held on Patriot’s day to commemorate the 1775 Lexington and Concord battles, which were the causes of the Revolutionary War. With about 23,000 participants, the marathon began in the west of Boston at the town of Hopkinton. At around 2:49 pm in the afternoon, there were two bombs located near the finish line near Copley square. The two bombs exploded consecutively. The first one exploded at exactly 2:49:43 pm outside Boylston Street. The second explosion happened after 14 seconds later at 2:49:57 pm at a further block, west of Boylston Street. During the time of the explosion, the winning runner had already crossed the winning line but there were more than 5,700 runners still on the race. The impact of the bombing blew out the window of the adjacent building but there were no structural reparations.

Devices

The first device officials said that metal and ball bearings were apparently packed in a cooker and then placed in a black duffel bag or backpack. Investigators wore white suits, boots and gloves to collect evidence. They recovered bits of a circuit board believed to be part of the timers, sources also said, and a pressure cooker lid 'thought to have been used in the bombings' was found on a roof near the crime scene, CNN reported. Special Agent Richard DesLauriers, head of the FBI's Boston office, said all of the crime-scene evidence collected including BBs, nails and pieces of the cookers were sent to bureau headquarters in Quantico, Va., agents tried to reconstruct the bombs.

Casualties and injuries

Injuries

The Boston Marathon attack was so severe that the Boston Public Health Commission has a record of 264 people locally treated in 27 hospitals. A week later after the attack, 29 civilians still remained hospitalized under critical condition. Most of them had leg injuries, which are a clear indication that the hazardous material was low to the ground. The total number of individuals who lost their limbs from the attack or from surgical amputation was 16, where three of them lost over one limb. Doctors report that most injuries were on legs, ankles, and feet. Few cases were reported for abdomen, chest and head injuries. There were also police officers that were injured during a firefight with the attackers. Others were shot accidentally by their fellow officers, for instance, Donohue received severe burns after an advertent shoot by his colleague.

Deaths

The bomb killed three civilians. The first bomb killed Krystle Marie the Medford restaurant manager. The second bomb killed A Boston university statistics graduate Lingzi and Martin William the 8-year-old from Dorchester. Later, the attackers ambushed Officer Collier while he was in his patrol car; he died from several gunshots. During the shootout, Dennis succumbed to death from excessive bleeding where he got injured from the hand-grenade explosion.

Incident Command

Unified Command (UC) started to form immediately after the explosions when law enforcement and emergency management officials collaborated on Boylston Street and instantaneously began coordinating priorities. Unified command was formed due to the multiple agencies involved. 40 minutes after the explosions, UC moved operations to a Unified Command Center (UCC) started at the Westin Hotel nearby. The unified command included the Governor, Mayor of Boston, Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, MEMA Director, Massachusetts State Police Superintendent, BPD Commissioner, Boston Fire Department Commissioner, Boston Emergency Medical Services Chief, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, MANG Adjutant General, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Transit Police Department Chief, and FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge. The decisions formed by the UCC were on initial law enforcement response and investigation matters, involving securing the crime scene, determining the level of the ongoing threat, and protecting critical infrastructure, as well as managing the runners evacuated off the course. The UCC stayed operating until April 16, 2013.

Background and motives of the attackers

Backgrounds

Tsarnaev family lived in the United States as immigrants from Kyrgyzstan. They were a Muslim family who had no American friends. Tamerlan had a history of violent attacks which included assaulting a girlfriend. Their mother Zubeidat was radical and supported Jihad which could have affected his sons and influenced their behavior. Zubeidat had received several warnings and was in Russian government terrorism watchlist. This was about one and a half years before the Boston Marathon Bombing.

Motives

FBI interrogators report that the motivating factor for these two brothers were Islamic beliefs that they do not need to get involved in a terrorist group. They would rather make their own explosives and weapons and use them for attacks. When Dzhokhar was arrested, he said that they wanted to defend Islam from the planned wars against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had been recruited by his brother Tamerlan as a helper. Tamerlan could not sympathize with the political aspirants in the Caucasus region who failed to integrate him to the American society. This could be a driving force towards the attack.

Timeline

A five day incident, approximately 100 hours began on April 15, 2013 as the marathon started 9:00 am. At 2:49pm the first bomb exploded, multiple agencies responded. Thirteen seconds later the second device exploded. April 16, 2013 FBI agents determined the bombs were made from pressure cookers which contained explosives, nails and bb’s and other shrapnel. They were unable to determine who or how the devices were detonated. April 17, 2013 President Obama signed an emergency declaration for Massachusetts and ordered federal aid to assist local response. April 18, 2013 the photo of suspects were leaked to the press and the FBI had no choice but to release the photographs and video of the two suspects to the public, this took away the element of surprise for law enforcement. Later that night the suspects shot MIT Officer Sean Collier to death in his patrol car. Shortly after they car jacked a vehicle at gunpoint, forced the driver to take money out of the ATM and drive them around. The suspects had planned to go to New York Time Square to detonate more bombs. The driver of the car-jacked vehicle was able to escape at a gas station and call the police. April 19, 2013 Officers in Watertown become engaged in a gun battle unaware they are the bombing suspects. During the incident Tamerlan was run over by his younger brother and later pronounced dead at the hospital. Dzhokhar was able to escape and a shelter in place was ordered as law enforcement went door to door searching for the suspect. A call was received of the suspect possibly in a boat in a backyard. Multiple agencies self deployed on the location, without orders officers fired over 106 rounds at the boat. The suspect was eventually taken into custody. April 22, 2013 Dzhokar was charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. April 30, 2013 two friends of Dzhokhar were charged with attempting to destroy evidence by disposing of a backpack and laptop computer taken from his room after they found he was a suspect in the bombing. Another was charged with lying to investigators.

Incident Management

Objectives

The objectives included managing the responses of the medical personnel, multiple law enforcement agency response and community caring response. The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) had learned from prior years and set up medical tents near the finish line. These were staffed with medical professional, which had the training and knowledge to deal with the injuries from the blast. Police officials, coordinated with medical personnel, to communicate with arriving police officers to allow ingress and egress. This allowed ambulances to quickly transport the severely injured to hospitals within 22 minutes of the incident. The FBI lead the investigation, their initial priority was to piece together the device, trace it back to the manufacture, distribution locations and connect it to the suspects. Law enforcement efforts shifted from direct engagement of the rescue mission to opening the investigation and evidence collection process.

Tactics

Tactics included the on-going explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) clearance, deploying of personnel to secure the crime scene area, investigating and collecting evidence, securing sites for possible secondary targets, clearing bags which were held at the finish line and also left at the scene and organizing evacuations. Also, continue to assess intelligence about ongoing events in Boston and elsewhere to determine if they might be connected or required further investigation or action.

Recovery

Recovery efforts included removing debris, cleaning the streets, providing access to residents and business owners to clean up prior to public access. It also including allowing family of the victims to return to the scene before was opened to the public.

Mitigation

Mitigation is the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Mitigation for the Boston Marathon included a multi-disciplinary, multi-jurisdictional planning process, which included discussions and a table-top exercise with a mass casualties at the finish line. The day of the race included local, regional, state and federal law enforcement, fire services, EMS, public health and transportation representative gather with the BAA, American Red Cross and MEMA at the Multi-Agency Coordination Center (MACC) to facilitate the coordination of public safety activity. There was a lack of command and control, which caused confusion and chaos among coordination of all involved agencies.

Conclusion

The attack turned out to be devastating. It used locally manufactured explosives which did not cause big structural damages. They rather affected the lives of individuals who had attended the Marathon. The bombers had targeted a global event which in which they wanted to revenge to the American government from the way Muslims were treated outside there by the American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. One bomber was shot dead while the other was brought to custody meaning that the investigative forces were successful in controlling the attack. The combined efforts from locals, national and international governments collectively resulted in controlling further attacks and helping the victims from the attack.

References

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